Now where’s the irony of this, The Giants come into town and not only am I not able to go to any of the games but I have to go to SF on business for the next few days ?? NOW THAT STINKS !!! I swear I’m going to wear my Dodger Blue proudly in the face of the enemy!!

As a fan I have always liked lineup continuity though I don’t know how great it is other than an indication of healthy players. I guess it comes from my memories as a kid watching the Dodgers. It seemed like the lineup was always Lopes, Russell, Smith, Garvey, Cey, Baker, Monday, Yeager, and the pitcher in that order but in reality of course it wasn’t. There were injuries and slumps and constant movement. It just seems like it from the memory of a 8 or 9-year old at the time.

One of these days I am going to go over to retrosheet and count how many times the team really used that exact lineup!

PaulG – You should get XM. They have every Baseball game and a whole channel dedicated to baseball (not to mention all the good music and other sports). Check out xmradio.com to find out more, but I’ve had it for 2 years and love it!

Ned was on espn radio either last night or this morning, i don’t know i just listened to the podcast, but he said schmidt won’t start to to rehab his shoulder for another couple of weeks. The rehab could take 2-4 weeks so Schmidt might be out a month or longer.

Man Abreu is killing the ball over in Vegas 4/5 HR shy of the cycle and 3 rbi’s Man That kid is ready to bust some MLB ball I’ll tell you what….He had 4 of 10 hits and 3 of 5 RBI’s from the leadoff spot and the 51’s still managed to lose that one ….

Hope Lowe has his head on straight tonight with Russ catching him. He looked really lost with Lieberthal. Here is where Betemit Gets 3 hits and starts to get his power back tonight. Warm day air is light…Lets Break that halloween streak and start a new one for the Dodgers!

I live here in the Bay Area, so I’m surrounded by Giants fans. Ugh! I hope the Dodgers not only sweep the Giants, but crush them! I hope Bonds goes hitless in the series. He’s a punk! I do respect his abilities – he can still hit – but I don’t respect his character – he’s a lying, cheating, whiny A-hole.

Let’s Go Blue! Have no mercy on the lowly Giants. Make them beg & cry like the babies that they are.

Yeah, Larry Bigbie and Tony Abreu are tearing it up for the 51’s in Vegas. I wish that they could be up here playing. What’s up with James Loney, though?

So what is up with Fox sports?
They have the team with the BEST record in Baseball ranked 7th on there list with our downside being that schmidt is out and we only… have hendrickson to fill in… I Know ESPN is bad and east coast biased but they have the team ranked 2nd. Fox is blind and clueless when it comes to who is hot and how deep a team is.Geeze if it only takes last years knowledge and research to be a writer I want that job….

I Know it is very early but power rankings should have something to do with who is on top and who has the depth to perform I mean Geeze A-Rod is Killing the ball and the Yanks are 1/2 game above the D-rays outta the cellar…They are not current power brokers.Fox gets an F in research for this week.

I’m not one to usually argue the details of each game, but I think the team could certainly try to work the starting pitcher more. Too many first-pitch swings, too many short innings. Morris owned the Dodgers, and the Dodgers were poised to exploit the Giants’ bullpen. Except they didn’t see their bullpen until the 8th.

Agree with puppuyhead01. If Morris was worked a little more and done a little sooner, we could had more time against the much more shaky bullpen.

But the hitters are professional, I’m sure the way they did it was the right way :-)

I hope the guys take some extra fielding practice, we’ve been a bit error-prone of late – Martin’s first throw though his second was a gem, Ethier’s bad jump on the ball … let’s keep the eye on the ball, guys, it is more fun to play well and win isn’t it? :-P

When was the last time any MLB player practiced fielding? Spring Training. And you’ll get the same answer in October that you do here in April. “Taking infield” is a lost tradition and one that is sorely needed in today’s game. This goes for outfield practice as well. Some guys will shag fly balls, but it’s just not the same thing.

I think Bigbie needs to be brought up to give Ethier a bit of competition. Since Kemp went down, it’s been a clear field for Andre, and he’s not quite playing like he needs to at the major league level.

Although I rarely disagree with you Kevin, I must on the issue of fielding practice.

I arrive at every home game early to take in batting practice. Without exception, while the hitters are batting, there is infield and outfield practice going on simultaneously. Just yesterday, I saw Mariano Duncan hitting grounders to Luis Gonzalez in shallow left; all the while Dave Jauss was hitting grounders to his infielders. This happens every day, and keep in mind that the Dodgers have been taking batting practice a good hour before the public is allowed into the stadium.

I also know for a fact that if a player is struggling, or just plain wants more practice at something, the coaches make themselves readily available to the players.

Just because a guy makes it to the Bigs doesn’t mean he automatically stays there, and these guys know this. Sure, there are some with stronger work ethics than others, but I can safely say that all of these guys practice regularly.

Ron… thanks for setting me straight. I was mislead to believe that fielding practice was a thing of the past these days. It’s good to hear that we are working hard on a daily basis… first place is a hard thing to keep! Thanks again…

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